CSA Summer: Week 6, featuring zucchini butter, tomato tart

Jeff was out of town for another four days this past week, so before he left, he spent two days cooking up a storm to make sure I'd eat healthily during his absence. Thank goodness for husbands, and thank goodness for this past week's CSA bounty from Goldfinch Farm:

First, Jeff made a cucumber and charred onion salad that he found in the June edition of Bon Appétit:

You can find the magazine's full recipe here. Below are Jeff's alterations to the recipe:

He added fresh oregano, mostly because our oregano is taking over the world.

He marinated the chile in vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar -- but he drained the soaking vinegar before adding the chile to the salad, to reduce the heat.

He also added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Jeff really liked the salad. It wasn't my favorite, mostly because I don't like onions and I thought the flavor was pretty mild. The grilled scallions were really nice, though.

Next up, Jeff whipped up a zucchini butter:

There's butter in the recipe, of course, but I wouldn't really call it "butter." It's more like a spreadable paste -- delicious, of course. Here's the full recipe from The Kitchn.

Jeff's alterations/notes:

The recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of olive oil OR butter. Jeff chose butter, because duh.

The recipe calls for 2 minced shallots, garlic or a combination. Jeff used 2 shallots as well as a clove of garlic.

He also added a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of sumac.

As for the bread, we love the New York Times' no-knead bread recipe. It requires very few ingredients and little effort, but you do need to plan ahead for it: The dough needs to rest for 12-18 hours before getting worked, resting for another 15 minutes, getting worked again and resting for another 2 hours before going into the oven.

The "butter" is best served warm, so if you have leftovers (and this does keep for about a month in the fridge), try heating it up in the microwave, covered, before spreading and serving.

Finally, Jeff made a tomato tart:

You can find the full recipe from Country Living here. The only changes Jeff made were to sub basil out and use rosemary and oregano. This is mostly because Japanese beetles annihilated our basil but left our rosemary and oregano intact.

The tomato tart is delicious, and I feel like it could also be made using pizza dough and not just the puff pastry. If you have leftovers, pop them in an oven, turn it on for 375º F and let them get warm with the oven. Remove them about three minutes after the oven has reached 375.

Check back later to find out our plans for our next CSA share. And if you have any ideas or suggestions (we’re always open to new recipes!), feel free to contact me at cdunn@ydr.com.